[13th Round] How to Catch a Tiger
The morning had come.
With the help of a ‘ring of luck’ [condom] given to me by the Health Teacher, I helped Saintess C bring down her temperature rising due to her hangover.
I, the MAX-Class Hero, despite being busy saving the world, still took care of the sick. I hoped she knew how honored she should feel…
“You are so shameless that I have nothing to say…” Woken up, Saintess C complained.
“Are you alright?”
“I am not alright at all.”
“Well, at least you don’t seem to have a hangover.”
“Can you stop changing the subject?! You got me drunk in that bar, and although it’s my own fault for falling asleep, I think it’s wrong for you to act like you’ve done nothing to an innocent girl!”
“But I didn’t kill you.”
“What?”
“I still think it’s better than being picked up on the street by some slave trader who would sell you later at the Black Market, putting a slave’s mark on your ass with a hot iron. Your body and skin are perfectly unharmed.”
“…”
“You should be grateful that you were able to meet the morning in good health.”
It seemed that this woman was too frivolous about this world. It was more profitable for a slave trader to sell a skilled male warrior, but that didn’t mean that women were safe. Her outstanding beauty would be in demand.
How could I ignore such a rude remark from this shameless woman? She made a scandal over such a trifling matter when I took it upon myself to guard her all night.
“Your example is too dark.”
“People should keep in mind the worst possible scenarios.”
“I always said those words to others, but I never thought I’d hear others say them to me. Fine. Thank you for helping me meet this morning in good health, but don’t expect any reward. I still don’t understand why you’re forcing me to thank you.” She sounded cold.
Getting out of bed and picking up her clothes from the floor, she began to get dressed.
I didn’t do anything. She took it all off herself, and my hands only helped a little.
“Leaving already?”
“If I don’t return soon, my companions will start to worry.”
“Not your rivals?”
“You keep saying words that hurt my pride, so I’ll be honest with you. I liked you, so I pretended to fall asleep. Stop thinking that you saved me yesterday.” She remained serious.
I shrugged playfully.
I already knew that.
Saintess C’s Status section in her stats didn’t state ‘Asleep’, after all. That made it obvious that she was just pretending.
But she didn’t know that I could see her stats. Hence, she believed she could fool me.
“Still going to leave?”
“Yes. If I stay with you longer, I might become as weird as you. Don’t tell anyone about last night! If you do, I’ll really get pissed off.”
I thought Saintess C was hiding her liberated lifestyle because of her position, but it seemed she was already like that since the beginning.
“I won’t tell anyone. There’s nothing about it worth bragging anyway.”
“Why do you insist on hurting my pride until the very end? You’re so convincing that it makes me angry, too. Yes. You’re right. It’s not something worth being proud of, but a lot of people in this world think too much about such an act. There was no need to worry about this back home.”
“Back home?”
“Oh! You’ve untied my tongue again, Mr. Suspicious Angel. May the protection of God be with you.”
Having cursed me, Saintess C departed.
But her gait was far from graceful.
I suppressed my laugh and offered to help her.
“Need a hand?”
“Isn’t that too much to ask for? Not that I don’t like it… A-anyway! I’ll only accept your help until we reach the bottom of the stairs. Only until we reach the bottom of the stairs!”
I grabbed her by the butt, helping her down.
I immediately heard a groan.
“Lustful Saintess, I understand the pain you are experiencing right now,” The First Spirit said.
Saintess C blushed, quietly muttering to herself.
“Beast…”
She complained even though I did her well; regardless I still helped Saintess C go down to the first floor.
With wobbly strides, she hurried away without looking back as if running away from someone.
So I saw off Saintess C.
“Being a hero is a really heavy job.”
My neck and shoulders ached because of the stress.
I wanted to lie on the bed and do nothing all day, but I needed to learn more about spatial transference from today.
I switched to the secondary education because of my son. I was told that if I graduated, I would be allowed to pull out whoever I wanted from the system.
The condition was to graduate.
They didn’t tell me I couldn’t leave the world of Fantasy.
I was going to rest on Earth while waiting for the other nine heroes to join forces and deal with the Five Great Disasters and the Demon Lord.
▶ Query: But wouldn’t it be better if you help them and graduate faster?
‘That’s such a great question, Trainee Teacher!’
It wasn’t that I didn’t think about it, but it seemed to me that the faculty wouldn’t let me graduate just like that.
Just like what they did in the elementary education course, they would find something to complain about.
So I would just leave my desk.
If I weren’t there, then there would be nothing to complain about.
▶ Confusion: A student being absent from class will be a problem…
‘Don’t worry about it, Trainee Teacher!’
I would complete my task.
There were now ten heroes in total.
If I defeated one of the Five Great Disasters, the remaining nine heroes would be forced to deal with the others and the Demon Lord.
Out on the street, I decided to go to the Snow Woman.
Because to activate the magic of spatial transfer, the feathers from her wings were needed.
It wasn’t difficult to find her.
“Haha! Snow Woman, where are you in such a hurry?”
Because wherever she went, my senior followed her.
I could even praise him for such persistence.
Although his perseverance only harmed the victim.
“I’m following the orders of the wizard. I’m busy today, so please don’t bother me.”
“Let’s go together. I’ll help you.”
“That won’t be necessary. I can handle it myself.”
He didn’t give up and continued to follow her instead.
The Snow Woman felt uncomfortable about it, and his cheerleaders watching them had expressions so cold they looked like assassins.
I knew what would happen next.
The cheerleaders would spread rumors that the Snow Woman was a monster, which would cause a scandal. She would then run away from the village, and the dragon would eat her.
I had two choices at this moment:
1) Deal with everything before the scandal could break out.
2) Help after everything had happened.
The result would be the same. The only difference was the time of intervention.
If I now saved the Snow Woman from my senior’s treacherous hands, I would look like the same lustful male that the First Hero was in her perspective.
On the other hand, if I waited until she was in trouble before saving her, I would get her favor.
The better choice was so obvious I didn’t even have to think about it.
“Hey, clinger.”
I didn’t like sitting around and cowardly waiting for her to be in trouble.
“…”
But even when I called out to him, he just walked past me.
I hurriedly put my foot in front of him.
“Hey, I’m talking to you.”
“Aren’t you the angel I met at the entrance of this village? What business do you have with me this time?”
He didn’t trip over my leg, but he stopped chasing the Snow Woman.
He looked displeased by the fact that I prevented him from continuing his business.
“Look back.”
“Back?”
Hearing my words, Senior turned around and found his support group peering out of a nearby alley.
As soon as they realized he had noticed them, they went out in the open and waved their hands in greeting as if nothing happened.
As if they, too, had just seen him.
“I don’t understand why you told me to look back.”
“Do you really not understand?”
Did nothing really pop into his head when he looked at those stalkers?
“I really don’t understand. If that’s all you need from me, then I’ll be on my way.”
He quickly caught up with the Snow Woman, who had already covered a decent distance. He began to bother her again.
Wrinkles appeared on my forehead as soon as I saw that. I decided to check my senior’s status.
▷ Race: Chaos Man
▷ Level: 999+
▷ Job: Mercenary (Wealth → Survival ↑)
▷ Skills: Chaos ZZ, Destruction ZZ, Oblivion ZZ, Gifted Z, Immortality Z…
▷ Status: Irritated, Magic Sword, Magic Beast, Horse Armor
The rank of his skills was enough for him to defeat the Snow King Eshinoff.
“Damn…”
I wanted to fight with the First Hero’s past self, but I wasn’t certain how that would affect the course of history, so I abandoned this idea.
It was impossible to physically force him to leave the Snow Woman alone. We needed to come up with a different method.
***
Perhaps it was due to system calibration?
Despite my intervention, the course of history hadn’t changed.
Due to the dastardly rumors that my senior’s cheerleaders spread, everyone learned that the Snow Woman was actually a harpy, forcing her to flee from the village.
Not everything remained the same, however.
Thanks to the measures taken, the Snow King Eshinoff didn’t eat her, allowing her to safely reach the wizard’s refuge.
My predecessor, of course, followed her.
“Ah! Sir Wizard, there’s trouble! The villagers learned that I was a harpy. What should I do now?” Sobbing, the Snow Woman burst into the wizard’s hideout and immediately asked for a solution.
With fatherly love on his face, he stroked her head then pointed to me, who had come here before her.
“Don’t worry about it too much. Say hello. From now on, he will keep an eye on you. This gentleman has not only deep pockets but also a heart.”
“Oh…”
The Snow Woman, her eye reddened since she had been crying for a while now, looked at me in confusion.
To calm her down, I showed her my Righteous Hero’s smile.
“Hi, Miss Snow Woman. I am the MAX-Class Hero, and I’m interested in your feathers’ ability to be catalysts for spatial transference magic.”
They said that if one wanted to catch a tiger, they would need to go into its lair.
I got the legal title to her.
“Miss Snow Woman! Don’t run away and listen to me! You are not an evil monster but a lady who deserves to be loved… Oh! You!” The uninvited guest shouted as he entered the wizard’s hideout. He pointed at me with his finger.
That ill-mannered man was called the First Hero.
A savage who, by force, became a hero.
“Miss Snow Woman, don’t listen to him. You can’t ignore or deny your real identity. You are definitely a monster. And I received the rights to your possession from this noble wizard.”
“Ah…”
The Snow Woman continued to stare at me in confusion.
Smiling, I looked at my drooping senior and raised a question.
“Do you need something from my monster? If not, leave the premises.”
“You..!”
Veins popped out of the First Hero’s forehead as he showed his true colors.
